Seeking to clarify employee-employer relations under the recently declared state of emergency in Armenia and the issue of “working at home”, the Armenian government (Unified Info Center) has issued the following statement. (This is an unofficial translation).

Given that the State of Emergency declared in the Republic of Armenia from March 16, 2020 has raised a number of questions regarding the existing regulations of the labor legislation in this situation, as well as the measures taken by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs to fill in the gaps.

According to Article 107 (1) and (2) of the Labor Code:

• Idle time having occurred without any fault of an employee shall be a situation at the workplace when an employer because of absence of production or other impartial reasons, fails to provide an employee with the work envisaged by the employment contract. 2.

• Taking into account their profession, qualification and health status, employees may be transferred to another work with their written consent for the period of idle time. Upon the consent of 32 employees, they may be transferred to another work also without taking into account their profession and qualification.

On the other hand, according to Article 186 Pt.1 of the Labor Code, during such  idle time, if the employee is not offered another job consistent with their profession, qualifications, that they could have performed without causing harm to their health, then the employee, for every hour of idle time, is paid at the rate of two-thirds of their pre-idle time average salary,  but not less than the minimum hourly rate established by law.

Pt 6 of the same article states: The idle time in force major cases established by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia or the idle time having occurred through the employee’s fault shall not be paid for. 

Recent developments show that some employers are following Article 186 (Pt. 1) of the Labor Code and are paying their employees, and some, following Article 186 (Pt. 6) are not.

It is obvious that a unified approach is now needed to avoid possible future labor disputes and court litigation.

For this reason, and to clarify labor relations under the recently declared state of emergency in the country, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has drafted and circulated a package of amendments to the Labor Code.

The draft bill proposes:

- if work can be organized on a remote basis, employees should not consider employees to be idle and their full salaries paid.

- the organization of remote work, and the change of work and off time, should not be regarded as an essential change of the work contract, which will enable employers to be more flexible and to notify in advance of such changes.

- in cases where the private sector employer, because of the conditions of the state of emergency, can no longer continue operating, including remotely, nevertheless should still remunerate the employee for each hour not worked for at least the minimum hourly rate established by law. The salaries of state and community funded organizations, as well as the staff of the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia are fully maintained.

- in cases where the employee has unused vacation time, and it is not possible to continue work during the state of emergency, the employer is obliged to grant employees their unused time if they so desire.

- in cases where the employee has not been able, because of the state of emergency, to show up for work, or has been late or not for the entire work day,   to prohibit employers from terminating the employment contract on their own initiative or applying a disciplinary penalty. In such cases, remuneration should equal the actual time worked or the actual work performed.

-in cases when employees show up late for work, or for part of the day, because they had to arrange for childcare for children attending educational institutions (including pre-school) because of unplanned for vacations or transfers, to prohibit employers from terminating the employment contract on their own initiative or applying a disciplinary penalty. In such cases, full pay is called for.

- provide a provision that overtime work during a state of emergency can be up to eight hours on two consecutive days as opposed to the current four hours.

 - the transitional provisions will also provide that the above arrangements will apply to employers and employees from March 16, 2020, when the state of emergency was declared.

It should be noted that several the proposals made in the draft stem from the basic principles of the Labor Code (Article 3), in particular:

- ensuring the right to fair working conditions for every employee

- ensuring that every employee is entitled to a fair and full-time remuneration not less than the minimum wage established by law

At the same time, as to the the view expressed in recent days that there is no need to amend the Labor Code in terms of the organization of remote labor since matters related to  home-based employment and remuneration are already regulated by the Labor Code (Article 98), we state that the place of work, under current regulation, is considered to be an essential condition of an employment contract, and when it changes the employer must notify the employee in advance. The number of days in advance is consistent with the employee’s time on the job.